Phillies sweep Cardinals, close the book on Pujols, Molina Era

Final Score: Phillies 2, Cardinals 0

ST. LOUIS — They love their legends in the Gateway City. The Cardinals’ 2022 season was the backdrop to a six-month long curtain call for three franchise legends: Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright. By the grace of God, Pujols finished his career with 703 regular season home runs. Molina and Wainwright limped to the finish after 36 combined seasons in a Cardinals uniform. The largest crowd in postseason history at Busch Stadium came to say goodbye.

Cardinals fans — and maybe the rest of the sport — rooted for a long postseason run and a storybook ending.

Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola had other plans. The two aces combined to throw 13 shutout innings, leading their team to a series sweep over the Cardinals. Nola — the longest tenured Phillie, who has received the most criticism over the last five years for the team’s inability to rise up to the moment — allowed only five batters to reach base safely. He struck out Goldschmidt and Arenado three times.

Nola will likely become the first Phillies pitcher to start a postseason game in Philadelphia since — Roy Halladay.

The end for Albert, the beginning for Seranthony

More than 48,000 fans got a curtain call from Pujols after his one-out single in the eighth against Seranthony Domínguez. The Cardinals needed a run and a 42-year-old Pujols wasn’t scoring from home on a ball in the gap. So ends a Hall of Fame career.

Molina also received an honorary send off after hitting a single in the ninth against Zach Eflin.

It would have been easier to swallow the abrupt ending for Pujols and Molina if the two MVPs in the middle of the Cardinals order did something, anything. Give credit to Domínguez. He wasn’t the same dominate reliever he was in the beginning of the season when he returned from a brief stint on the injured list in September. He could have folded after giving up a big hit to a player he probably grew up idolizing. Instead, he hung tough, threw 12 pitches and recorded two timely strikeouts to end the threat.

The largest crowd in postseason history at Busch Stadium III fell silent.

First October Bryce bomb

Harper’s first signature postseason moment came in the second inning. Miles Mikolas hung a curveball on the first pitch and Harper drove it 435 feet deep into the right field seats. When you hang a pitch the way Mikolas did, it really doesn’t matter if Harper is at 50% or 100%. He’s crushing it every time:

There are only a handful of visiting players who are greeted with boos in “baseball heaven.” Since the entire sport sat around and decided that Harper is a villain 10 years ago, he doesn’t get any special treatment here. Harper has nine more years left on his contract with the Phillies. The franchise’s plan is to be in the postseason for most of those years, if not all. It’s exciting to think about the many chances Harper will get to silence a sold-out crowd in October on the road.

Ticket IQ Next Game

• Tuesday, October 11 vs. Atlanta Braves (Game 1 of NLDS)
• Time TBD
• TV: Fox, FS1
• Radio: SportsRadio 94 WIP